An old roll of Fujifilm NPS 160 - unopened - still useable?

ted_smith · Aug 4, 2012

WHen I visited my Dads the other day, he gave me an old unopened and unexposed roll of Fujifilm NPS 160. He's had it for "years" he said and it has never been in the fridge. It doesnt have a best before date on it.

Due to the development and printing costs these days, I don't want to use it, spend £15 on development and scanning\printing only to find it was no good.

Do you think it will be useable or shall I just throw it away?

Ted

perkeleellinen · Aug 4, 2012

Someone would probably be interested in it for the cost of a stamp, offer it for free here rather than chuck it. It probably is OK, maybe no good for important work, but for fun stuff. I'd get it developed only and inspect the negs before paying for printing or scanning.

Alan W · Aug 4, 2012

Fuji nps 160 when it was available new was great for colorful street scenes with nice vibrant blues and greens,wonderful for graffitti.I would use it for something like that in its current state and not for portraits as the skin tones will be off-take it to the circus!

Poisson Du Jour · Aug 5, 2012

Run it through your camera Ted and be surprised. I suspect it will have a colour shift, but nothing worse than what you'd get cross-processing.
If if the colour was dud, it is valuable learning experience to understand how film does change over time in less than optimum storage e.g. refrigerator / deep freeze. In my Olympus XA I have a roll of NPS 160 that expired in November 2007, same as the roll before it. Nothing I would be concerned about other than to note the colours are not as Vaudeville as Velvia!

newcan1 · Aug 5, 2012

I have a lot of expired NPS (35mm) that was allegedly cold stored. The colors have not shifted (probably because cold stored) but it has lost a lot of speed. Bracket the exposures. You may find its effective speed is 80 ASA or lower. Also the stuff I have is quite a bit grainier than say Pro S (probably because speed loss affects the smaller grains more). Mine is still very usable but definitely not as good as it would have been when fresh.

removed account4 · Aug 5, 2012

don't expect it to look like it was brand new and fridge stored ..
you can shoot it at half speed and process it in b/w developer, it will
give you smooth black and white tones and be very nice ..
better yet, send it to me, and i'll do that :

benjiboy · Aug 6, 2012

If it was me Ted I wouldn't spend £15 on getting a film that old processed, I'd save it to test your cameras film transport mechanism with it if you ever suspect it's faulty.

ted_smith · Aug 10, 2012

Thanks guys. I have pletny of other lovelly fresh (and refrigerated) film such as Fuji Provia 100 and Acros so I don't need it just yet. I might keep it for a throw away day of something none-important.

TheFlyingCamera · Aug 10, 2012

I have some old Fuji NPS160 that I keep shooting periodically. I forget how out of date mine is (I think some of it goes back to 2005, or maybe even older), and it has been fairly stable, despite not being cold stored. I wouldn't use it for anything color-critical, but I wouldn't worry too much about it either.

An old roll of Fujifilm NPS 160 - unopened - still useable?

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